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ORSONI MASTER IN MOSAICS CLASS
“Living the Venice Workshop, History, Theory and Application of Mosaic Art”
In May of 2019, I had a chance to take a Master of Mosaic class in Venice, Italy at Orsoni.
Orsoni is the only live-fire furnace in Venice, located in the historic city center. Since 1888, the historic Venetian furnace has used the same techniques to produce 24-karat gold leaf mosaics, colored golds, and Venetian smalti in over 3,500 different shades of color.
With only two other students, the Master of Mosaic class was an intensive weeklong class to learn about the history of Italian mosaics, how the glass is made and the different ways to cut it and the different techniques in how to create a mosaic.
For this class, I decided to do a piece based on a purple pansy. I quickly found out that purple is one of the few colors that is difficult to create in smalti glass since purple hued pigments turn greyish when heated. So, I learned how to blend different shades of reds and blues to create the illusion of purple. I also learned how to shatter the glass to create small slivers to build texture within my flower.
I was staying on the Orsoni property - it had a few rooms that students could rent. The Orsoni factory is located in the Cannaregio area of Venice- it is a bit off the beaten path and an area that is more for locals than tourists. The property had a small but gorgeous courtyard full of rose bushes and plants. I was lucky that my little workstation was by the window and I could enjoy the cool breeze and the sun streaming in. In the next room over, about 6 people cut glass by hand all day long. You could hear the rhythmic chopping sound all day as the ladies chatted in Italian or sang along to the radio. It truly was peaceful and I found myself working late into the night on many occasions. We had a chance to visit the color library- a whimsical area where there are sheets of glass in every color that Orsoni produces. There is even a bathroom that is floor to ceiling 24k gold mosaic in an ombre pattern.
I absolutely fell in love with Venice and the Italian smalti glass. I think like anything, you appreciate it more when you have a chance to see how it’s made, meet the people making it and learning its history. My time at the Orsoni factory did just that- to see the people melting the glass in the furnace (they only make one color a day), seeing the glass disks being chopped by hand into small tesserae and then visiting these stunning historic cathedrals where the mosaics are installed - it was life changing.
